Custom terminal based on VTE. There are many terminals available. Many of them are based on VTE, a library implementing a terminal emulator widget for GTK+. Some are highly configurable, some are small but none of them match exactly my expectations.

Here is a short survey:

• ROXterm
• Sakura
• Termit
• evilvte
• gnome-terminal
• lilyterm
• st
• xfce-terminal
• sterm

vbeterm is really tailored to my need. You are unlikely to find it useful. sterm is a derivative with a bit more flexibility. Another close alternative with a ability to configure before compiling is evilvte.

If you plan to write your own, have a look at the exsting one. It is likely that evilvte will support what you want. If it is too "bloated" for your taste, you can start from the minimal demo from the same author. If this demo is too simplistic, you can also have a look at VTE's own demo, written in Vala.

Also, a bold notice about VTE: this is a library whose sole purpose is to support Gnome Terminal. If a feature is needed for Gnome Terminal, it will be added. If a feature is not needed anymore, it will be deprecated and removed quickly. For example, Gnome Terminal removed the ability to set an image background. Shortly after, the corresponding function in VTE was also removed.

For more information, see this blog post.

• No tab support
• Use of VTE 2.90 (GTK3)
• Single instance managing several terminals.
• dabbrev-expand (mapped on Alt-/)

Execute the following commands:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

You need VTE 0.40.x which is not yet widely available. You can look at commit d98dad for a version working with a more ancient version. On Debian, the appropriate package is libvte-dev.